maeahumanities

[maeahumanities]

The first photo presents two boys who are working, barefoot on this dangerous machine. This photo reflects overcoming adversity because it shows what the children of immigrants dealt with when coming to America, a brand new country.

They tried to overcome their adversities from their country by working hard in America to have a better life. During the 2nd Industrial Revolution, children were forced to use unguarded machines which led to a percent of “40 percent of accident cases at Manchester Infirmary in 1833 were factory accidents.”

Not only there were accidents, but also long working hours with low wages. “In 1990, 18 percent of all American workers were under the age of 16.” They “were easier to manage and control and perhaps most importantly, children could be paid less than adults.” These children worked for their families even though they lacked an education.

The viewer can tell that this photo is from the 2nd Industrial Revolution because it shows child labor. In 2018 or the present, child labor is illegal in America. A reformer, Jacob Riis took photographs to investigate the conditions of child labor. After many reformers convinced the Americans that education was necessary, it “led several states to establish a minimum wage for labor and minimal requirements for school attendance.” But, these laws took place in few states and weren’t respected much. More reformers showed how atrocious child labor was to the public.

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The second photo presents an overcrowded boat full of immigrants. This is an immigrant boat that was taking immigrants to Ellis Island.

This photo reflects migration because it shows what immigrants went through to get to America. It shows how desperate they were to go to America. Before, there wasn’t a limited amount of immigrants that were able to come to America since it was a time where they wanted more population. But because of the fact that there was beginning to have fewer jobs, the government lowered the number of immigrants that could be taken in. The immigration ships got tighter to the point where they were in poor conditions and cramped.

Immigrants were often poor causing them to take boat seats with the poorest condition, “only affording spots by the… steering mechanisms.”  It was terrible because of how there was “little ventilation [and] little to no privacy.”

The viewer can tell that this photo is from the2nd Industrial Revolution because in the time period, a mass of immigrates came to America and the boat shows multiple immigrants on the boat. Slowly, after American feared of others taking their jobs causing the quota acts against immigrants of Asian background.

“By the early 1960s, calls for immigration reform were growing louder,” causing the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. The government stopped the effect of the Chinese Exclusion Act causing the amount of Asians in the country to increase. But because of this act, immigrants can “enter the country by air, by sea, and by land routes through Canada and Mexico, making it easier than ever to enter the country illegally.”

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The third photo presents multiple homeless children in a foul environment. The children are surrounded by trash and you could a little girl covered in thin dirty blankets.

This photo reflects overcoming adversity because it shows how affected the children are from the lack of coverage. The environment the children are living in can be hazardous. In addition, they don’t have any warmth or protection. Because they are homeless, assuming that their families are going through poverty, they can’t be provided with healthy food, clothing or an education. This can put children or our current generation back and cause a bad future for America. These obstacles make it hard for them to make a living. It connects to immigrants in the 2nd Industrial Revolution as both went through these obstacles. Some of the reformers trying to end homelessness are people part of the National Alliance to End Homelessness and The Doe Fund. The Doe Fund came up with a plan to reform homeless services in New York City. Also, some of these homeless children are refugees who come to America to escape their own country because of fear of war, discrimination, or persecution. Fortunately, all children must go to school even if they’re lacking documentation.

The viewer can tell that this is at the current time because of the photo quality, it isn’t black and white like the previous photos. Also, the children are wearing clothing that correlates to our time period.

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The fourth photo presents multiple refugees from Syria. They consist of children, the elderly and adults. All of them are trying to escape from the problems in their country. This photo reflects migration because it shows how the refugees are blocked from being able to migrate to America. Syrians are trying to escape from the war in their country. Around (Year), Trump issued his executive order, blocking travel from Syria to America. The refugees’ acceptance rate into America decreased from Trump’s executive order. The United States is aware that there are 5.5 million Syrian refugees yet in the past three months, they’ve “allowed two of them to enter the country…” However, because of all the backlash and accusations of discrimination, he agreed to decline the travel ban from Syria. In trade for the declination, Trump “increased scrutiny of refugees from 11 countries, requiring that [they would] be admitted only if doing so fulfills ‘critical foreign policy interests.’” Meaning, that they’ve increased the security over refugees coming into the United States. Refugees are trying to immigrate to America to flee their countries’ troubles.

The viewers can tell that this is at the current time because it shows events that have to do with today. It shows the Syrians in trouble blocked from migrating to America. Syria is currently going through a war that has to do with going against their president. This war obviously makes Syria not safe anymore which is why desperately want to migrate to America. But they can’t because of how strict the system is towards immigrants.

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Illegal Immigrants

Donald Trump’s impression of illegal immigrants is wrong because of how most illegal immigrants come to America for a better life, not to harm America. Immigrants came to America to escape war, famine, to have a freedom of religion and speech. This is presented during the 2nd Industrial Revolution, a mass of immigrants coming to America to escape their adversities in their hometown. This event caused immigrants went through poverty, job competition, and discrimination.

Immigrants went through job competition coming to America. For the fact that there were many immigrants coming into the country, there was a limited amount of jobs open and little space. Many Asian immigrants were allowed into the country but “after a while, whites feared they would take their jobs,” leading to the Chinese Exclusion Act, preventing the Chinese from coming in. With a limited amount of jobs, even if you did get a job, most immigrants would have long hours with such low pay. Immigrants “worked for low wages, lowering everyone else’s. Also, jobs had terrible conditions and employers took this into mind. “Squalid, appalling working conditions led to riots, strikes, and anarchy which were blamed on new immigrants.” Since immigrants didn’t get paid much, they didn’t care about their health. In addition, if families didn’t have jobs, then the children would go to work. Most employers employed them for the reason stated in the photo that presenting child labor, the fact that they don’t have to pay them much.

Immigrants also went through nativism. During 1873, nativism, violence against immigrants started since “immigrants were blamed for taking jobs away from native-born Americans.” Americans believed in Manifest Destiny, “based on the belief of cultural an racial superiority over other nations.”  Americans at this time thought that jobs should go to all of the original Americans before immigrants. But, this thinking process contradicts what America is for. They believe that there shouldn’t be anyone superior to another. For example, America to Britain or African slaves to American citizens. Trump’s thoughts about immigrants go against America’s thoughts on equality. Americans also thought that there would be a great change in their culture. “The rise in the Nativism doctrine and the belief that preference should be given to existing American citizens was often accompanied by xenophobia” Xenophobia was the fear that foreigners would lead to racism and ethical conflicts. Because of nativism, immigrants couldn’t adjust to America and start better lives for themselves and their families.

America is a place for immigrants to grow and to escape all their adversities. Trump’s taking away that privilege by making the immigration process more stricter and by adding blockage to America. This action can ruin lives which is why I believe that his actions are wrong.

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Work Cited

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/26/magazine/the-new-social-reformers.html https://www.doe.org/3065 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2760060/ https://study.com/academy/lesson/immigration-in-industrial-america-and-the-rise-of-nativism.html http://fortune.com/2017/01/29/donald-trump-immigration-ban-republicans/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/shp/britishsociety/livingworkingconditionsrev1.shtml http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/tour/stop1.htm https://prezi.com/nra2cwcsv11s/immigration-during-the-second-industrial-revolution/?webgl=0 https://www.history.com/topics/child-labor https://www.history.com/topics/u-s-immigration-before-1965 https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/ellis-island-history#Laws https://www.history.com/topics/tenements https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/immigration-timeline http://www.american-historama.org/1881-1913-maturation-era/nativism-in-america.htm http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35806229 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-homelessness/more-than-500000-people-homeless-in-the-united-states-report-idUSKCN0T908720151120 https://nche.ed.gov/downloads/briefs/imm_lia.pdf